Last week’s The Flash episode revealed the dark side of the Speed Force/Nora who killed the Strength Force/Alexa Rivera (Sara Garcia) and is furiously hunting down the other two. Barry refuses to help Nora track the elemental forces for two, if not three, reasons: 1. elemental forces cannot essentially be destroyed by just killing its conduits, 2. Killing conduits equals murder and 3. That’s just against Team Flash’s tenets. But Nora tries to convince them saying these forces will eventually concoct chaos in this world if not stopped now. Following this heated argument, Nora takes off on her solo mission.

The Speed Force/Nora trying to convince Barry and Iris to kill the other two conduits in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW

And after discovering that Team Flash unintentionally birthed three elemental forces in addition to the Speed Force, Cisco backtracks to the day of the revival to prove the energy signatures matching these conduits’ multiversal particles did in fact originate from that day. This further instills in Barry the idea of time travel being the default solution.

The birth of the forces in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW

Despite all the taboo around it at S.T.A.R Labs and that this time he might even lose his powers, the Team votes for it. Talk about recycling stories! Iris doesn’t agree with his idea, nor does Cisco but Chester decides there’s no other way. The three men also vote to bring back Dr. Harrison Wells/Timeless Wells (insert googly eyes) from the pre-particle accelerator explosion since he’s the obvious source for expert advice on multiversal particles.

Timeless Wells is back in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW

Just when the Team finishes modifying the tachyon collector (first appears in The Flash, season 1, episode 9 “The Man in the Yellow Suit”) to work as a multiversal particle collector, Deon Owens/Still Force pops out of nowhere and realizes what they were up to if the Team succeeds in collecting those particles the night of the Speed Force rebirth, the other forces will cease to exist. Deon ages the collector but doesn’t do anything to the core that Chester hid before Deon figured out everything. Meanwhile, Caitlin monitors Alexa’s corpse for anything out of the ordinary that may help bring her back to life.

Deon ages the tachyon collector in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW

So Team Flash is now working in two: Wells and Barry travel to the day of speed force rebirth as Iris, Allegra, and Kamilla venture into Barry’s old house in hopes of finding Nora. Instead, they tumble into Psyche (there’s no explanation why he’s there?) who attacks the three without any reason.

Iris, Allegra and Kamilla at Barry’s old house in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW
Pysche attacks Iris, Allegra and Kamilla in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW

Barry manages to collect the particles but is unable to stop the forces themselves from being generated. That’s when he realizes Iris, Cisco and everyone else was right, and that an elemental force cannot be stopped so he breaks the collector and releases the particles, thus saving Deon, Alexa, and Psyche.

The Flash
The birth of the forces in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW
The Flash
Barry destroys the collector and releases the particles in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW

This is also the moment when past Wells nods at someone/something during the Speed Force rebirth in episode 3, “Mother” and it turns out to be the time-travelling Wells helping Barry!

Iris and Barry bring Alexa back to life in THE FLASH S7E9; Photo: The CW

Barry and Iris reconcile after his return and realize they can jumpstart Alexa, and so they do. Apparently, she was just too weak to heal and needed an external generator to tap into. Wells makes way to his own time, i.e. to the time when his wife is still alive. Before he leaves, he affirms that love transcends everything, which might be the reason for his decision to leave Central City. With Wells, Frost, and Cisco out of the picture, Team Flash is now severely understaffed and it’s about to get worse.

Watch The Flash Season 7 Tuesdays on The CW.